Taking Sides in the Middle East

I just enjoyed reading this great article, Taking Sides in the Middle East, by Burt Prelutsky, a humor columnist and a film critic in Los Angeles (and wrote scripts for many TV series, check out his bio).

Excerpt:

I want that to be perfectly clear so that when I declare my concern for Israel, nobody will simply assume it’s because I’m Jewish.  I am on the side of Israel because it’s a western democracy, an ally of America, and because I regard her enemies to be our enemies, people dedicated to our mutual annihilation.

Israel’s foes believe in targeting women and children just so long as they’re Jewish or Christian.  They are not only intolerant of the freedoms we take for granted — speech and religion — but they are polygamous, treat their women as chattel and encourage their children to achieve martyrdom as suicide bombers.  Moreover, so-called honor killings are part of what passes for their culture.

Please read it all.

Love that ender:

I understand that civilized societies are expected to worry about the deaths of women and children.  But in civilized societies, parents don’t raise their youngsters to be suicide bombers, they don’t elect their leaders from the ranks of a terrorist group and they certainly wouldn’t dance in the street when 3,000 innocent Americans were incinerated on 9/11.

One poster reminded us about King David nearly 3000 years ago:

Those who hate me without reason
outnumber the hairs of my head;
many are my enemies without cause,
those who seek to destroy me.
I am forced to restore
what I did not steal.
Psalm 69:4

Robriefs 5.15.2008

Robrief no. 1: Bush spoke out against appeasement, Democrats seethes
Aw, those Democrat crybabies, whining over Bush’s speech in Israel, hailing its 60th birthday of its founding as Israel’s enemies failed to “wipe” away from the world’s map. Bush asserted that any diplomatic appeasement with terrorists or rogue states with conditions is always bounded for failure with foolish or tragic consequences. The world needed less of Neville Chamberlains (or Jimmy Carters, for that matter) in this age of religious/state terrorism and political extremism. Nearly 555 years ago, Constantine XI bluntly told Mehmet II in a letter, that under no certain conditions that the Byzantine emperor will surrender himself and Constantinople peacefully to the Turks and that the Byzantines and their allies would fight to the very bitter end. I know what happened at the end but that’s beside the whole point. When the Democrats are going to realize that sitting down and “appeasing” with the enemies of the United States is bounded for failure with foolish or tragic consequences for the nation?! Winston Churchill is best remembered for his foreshadowed statement in October of 1936: “Those who do not think of the future are unworthy of their ancestors.”

Professor Steven Plaut provided the real meaning and history for the term of “Nabka”. When these progressive-minded people, such as Daily Kos and some Democrats, who support the “Palestinians” are going to realize that they are actually defending political/Islamist fantasies masquerading as “truth”, watching the largest-ever staged grievance theater and unwittingly promoting a quiet genocide against the Jews? I bet Hitler must be really proud of these leftist “progressive-minded” people. Indeed.

Robrief no. 2: Sex and the City movie premiered in London, New Yorkers seethes
About 7 years ago, I used to watch the first season of “Sex and the City” on DVD just to see what the fuss was all about about four women, a city and sex. Ugh. After that, I decided not to watch the rest of the seasonal series. Meaningless and trite. However, a New Yorker magazine rightly boycotted the upcoming movie because it has premiered in London and not in New York City, and New Yorkers are upset about that fact, since the city itself is the fifth character of the HBO show. Really, I don’t care for the show/movie but not giving New York City the due benefit of being the real star of the movie while it premiered in London is disrespectful to the people of New York City.

Robrief no 3: 400 Illegal Immigrants Arrested, Illegal Immigration Advocates seethes
About 400 illegal immigrants were rounded up and arrested by the federal government, awaiting deportation. Immigration advocates vocally protested. Political TV pundits and politicians screamed or argued over immigration issue. The Pope stepped in. Huh? The Pope? Does this took place in California, Texas or in the U.S.? Nope! Italy!

Illegal immigration have never been an American problem to begin with, it has been a global problem for many countries around the world. Even China!

Robrief no. 4: Starting seething now once you read this below
Prepare for the inevitable $8 per gallon for gas, thanks to the “glorious” Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act if sign into law. Pound on that table with your fists, yeah, baby! Get the steams out of your ears! Tell Congress to start pushing for ANWR drilling, the oil shale development in Colorado and the Bakken Oil Field.

Robrief no. 5: Palestinian call centers for American customers, Debbie Schlussel seethes

You know “Sean” and “David” a/k/a Pradeep and Srinivasan? They’re the ones you get on the phone when you call to complain about problems with that new printer or fax machine or some other call center function outsourced to India.

Well, say good-bye to “Sean” and “David” a/k/a Pradeep and Srinivasan, and hello to “Sean” and “David” a/k/a Mohammed and Yasser

Be wary of sharing personal/confidential information with outsourced call centers in the Mideast. I believe the American customers have the right to know the exact specific locations of all the outsourced call centers they’re calling to.

Robrief no. 5: Had enough of seething?
Think happy thought.

Robriefs 5.13.2008

Robrief no 1: Tragedies Strike in China and Burma
My heart goes out to the victims and survivors of the recent earthquake that struck China and the post-cyclone disaster in Myanmar (Burma). I was out of town this past weekend and just got back yesterday after a ridiculous airline screw-up, but seem petty for me, given the tragedies going on in China and Myanmar (Burma) now. The tolls are unbelievable and tragic. Interestingly, Myanmar (Burma) is China’s important oil-producing ally in the southeast Asia (its oil/gas fields are off the coast of Myanmar (Burma) and all the oil/gas extracted is produced and exported to China). The militaristic government of Myanmar (Burma) is known to have close ties to some high-ranking Chinese officials in China, mainly related to mining, trading and oil/gas businesses. However, China have been trying to prod the government of Myanmar (Burma) to open up to global humanitarian relief efforts, probably through the diplomatic backchannel at the UN in New York. It’s time for the militaristic government of Myanmar (Burma) to go.

Robrief no. 2: Hillary’s last gasping chance tonight?
She ain’t giving up that easily, no matter high-level Democrats are prodding her to quit. Is she waiting for the immaculate reception anyhow? I could see some behind-the-scene strings pulling. Hmm…

Robrief no. 3: Daily Kos’ dirty low-blow “eulogy” to Israel’s 60th Anniversary celebration
Daily Kos is a blog representing the “best *cough-cough* bright” progressive-minded left-wingers in America and this nasty, conjectural piece of work is inconceivable and hard-to-swallow. Nice going, Daily Kos.

I will say this, as I’d predicted before: the end of Israel will not mean the beginning of peace in Palestine and the Mideast, it will mean more terrorism and violence in the future, particularly by some hardcore Jews who will fight to the death to avenge the loss of Israel and the homeland it represented for the world Jews (and Christians, Arabs, and Samaritans as well) for the last 60 years. No such concession to allow a micro Jewish state within Palestine will make up for such a loss. Too much bloods and sacrifices have been shed in Israel for 60+ years will not goes unanswered. The suggestion that Israel is an apartheid state is utterly ridiculous and conjectural, an invention cleverly conjured up by the anti-Semitic political radicals and Islamists worldwide. Mark my words: end of Israel will not mean peace in the Mideast in the future.

Robrief no 4: Obama was a born Muslim and he is an apostate to Islam, regardlessly
Edward Luttwak wrote a New York Times op-ed warning that if Barack Obama is elected President, his birth as a Muslim to a Muslim father and a Christian woman and his conversion to Christianity will be a problem for the leaders of the Islamic world. In some Islamic countries, voluntary apostasy from Islam is punishable by beheading or amputation of legs/arms. Sharia laws are on the rise worldwide and sharia banking is already gaining widespread interests within the global financial world, since in the next few or several years, the center of the financial world could shift from the Wall Street of New York to Dubai.

The only way for Obama to avoid the charge of apostasy from Islam and the threat of beheading is for him to renounce his Christian faith totally and return to Islam in an act of prostration. I don’t think Obama would goes in that direction, given the fact he wanted to be viewed as a man born of two faiths, both to Christians and Muslims (the Indonesian brand of Islam?). We shall see.

UPDATE – 5.18.2008: Barack Obama … Muslim Apostate
The author, Shireen K. Burki, have something in common with Obama: being a child of a Muslim father and a Christian mother and know the full lesson and price of Islamic apostasy from her study of Islam in Pakistan, this excerpt from Burki’s C.S. Monitor article said it all for Obama:

In bin Laden’s eyes, Obama is a murtad fitri, the worst type of apostate, because he was blessed by Allah to be born into the true faith of Islam.

There are two types of apostates according to sharia (Islamic law) and the Hadith (sayings of the prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him).

The first type is murtad milli, one who converted to Islam and later renounced the faith. The second, and most egregious, type is murtad fitri. It refers to a person born of a Muslim father who renounces his birthright. Two recent examples of the latter are Magdi Allam (a male Egyptian who converted to Catholicism in Italy) and Ayaan Hirsi Ali (Somali-born woman who’s now an atheist). Both now face death threats.

According to Islamic jurisprudence, children of a Muslim father – even an apparently nonpracticing one, such as Obama’s father, and irrespective of the mother’s faith – are automatically Muslims. Most Muslims around the world agree: A child of a Muslim father is a Muslim. Period.

Should Obama become US commander in chief, there is a strong likelihood that Al Qaeda’s media arm, As-Sahab, will exploit his background to argue that an apostate is leading the global war on terror (read: attacks against fellow Muslims). This perception would be leveraged to galvanize sympathizers into action.

Call out to deaf Jews and deaf Arabs in Israel

I had just read a National Post article written by the Israeli ambassador to Canada, Alan Baker, describing the “poisonous myth of Israeli apartheid”. I know for a fact that Israel is one of the two major liberal democratic states in the Middle East (the other is Turkey, although with a mixture of secular and Islamic aspects) and yet this Ambassador to Canada from Saudi Arabia decided to respond with a scathing letter denouncing Baker’s article about Israel. The suggestion that Israel is an “apartheid” state came from ex-president Jimmy Carter’s much-criticized book, “Palestine Peace Not Apartheid”, which had aroused furors and disappointments from the American Jews, Democrats, and even Bill Clinton himself disagreeing with Carter’s hyperbolic, unsubstantiated premise about Israel as an apartheid state. Carter used the issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the peace process to highlight the problems the Palestinians had with Israel but he did not bother to check out what life is really like in Israel daily so far, like what Alan Baker had pointed out.

That is why I am calling out an open invitation to deaf Jews and deaf Palestinians and Arabs living in Israel, asking them to really educate us deaf Americans (and deaf Canadians, too! ) about what life is really like for the deaf Jews, Arabs and Palestinians, as well as other deaf Christians and Druzes, in Israel. We would like to understand the nature and circumstances from the Israel-Palestinian conflict that have such impacts on the deaf life and culture in Israel.

Does any of Alan Baker’s article confirm that there is no such thing as “apartheid” in Israel in any way or is there any credibility to what the Saudi Ambassador was saying about Israel as an apartheid state?

I’m not taking any side. I am all for peace between Israel and the Palestinians, just as long as neither side have to concede or expend themselves to the very bitter end and destruction. There’s no point perpetuating the conflict but there’s no point in perpetuating myths, wild theories and propaganda as well. Each side have legitimate grievances and concerns that needed to be addressed frankly and peacefully on the tables or in the moderated public forum, not with guns, checkpoints, bombs and martyrs, with all the emotions running high. I would not wanted to see Israel “wiped out” from the world’s map in my lifetime.

Granted, I may expect some kind of biased, prejudiced or hostile opinions from anyone who have follow the conflict for as long as they remember or have pay attention to the issues behind it, although with a degree of uninformed or propaganda standard. I should remind you all such hostile attitudes or sentiments about the Jews and the Palestinians (and to the originator of this blog) are not welcome here, so that I ask you to refrain from it and try to look at the other side’s perspective and see how that make you feel, like if the shoe is in the other foot, so to speak.

If you think that I have no reason to blog about this invitation to deaf Jews, deaf Palestinians or Arabs living in Israel, asking them to offer their own personal insights of life in Israel and in the disputed territories of Palestine so I hope to be educated truly as it is, please feel free to tell me like it is at robsund9 “at” yahoo.com, I welcome your feedback or thought!

Addendum: for those who agreed with the Saudi Ambassador about what happened to Rachel Corrie, the story about her “protecting a Palestinian house” have been thoroughly debunked here and here. Rachel Corrie was a member of the far-left radical organization, the International Solidarity Movement, and died trying to protect an Islamic weapon-smuggling operation under the house’s ground.